Lauren's NEA blog

The Three-Act Structure The 3 act structure is a principle linked to storytelling. It can be found in plays; Shakespeare was a great user of it, poetry, novels; the works of Conan Doyle show this structure, comic books, short stories, video games and film; films of Hitchcock used this also. Even though the concept of the structure is simple, it has a lot of power over how these works of art are perceived and is a very powerful weapon in the hands of a writer. The three acts are labelled as: Act 1: Setup  In the first act of any film, novel, play, comic etc, all of the major characters, the main setting, and the conflict which will move the story forward and the genre are introduced. It's in the first few pages of the script that the writer is able to define the reasoning and logic of the story, therefore giving them the freedom to let anything happen. It is also essential that Act 1 contains a strong hook that will encourage the viewers/readers to carry on reading/watching.

Creativity: This short film is showing something which I have never seen.  Setting/Location: The whole short film is set in a school, and the main parts of it are set in the teacher's classroom. This  setting was obviously relevant to the story as it is all about a teacher being paid by students in order to get good grades. I think however this film could have included different locations to make it more interesting and to add some differentiantion in the film.  Costume and props:  The costumes used in this piece suit the different characters which makes the piece more realistic. The teacher wears a white shirt and black trousers, something which a teacher would actually wear. The student is wearing normal everyday clothes that an American teenager would naturally wear to school, which also gives the overall realistic theme in this film. The props used in this film also suit to the realistic aspects. Regular school objects are present throughout such as the teach

                                                                       The Fly:                                                              The Ellington Kid: Tight Jeans: I have never really watched short films before but after this lesson, I really enjoyed them and have been trying to watch more since. A short film that I particularly enjoyed was 'The Fly' as I found it interesting and also a realistic concept as flies are something that annoys everyone. Another aspect of the film that interested me was the no use of dialogue, however, it was very clear as to what the main character was feeling. This short film made me think about how I wanted my own short film to be and because this one is a simple concept but is effective, it has shown me that all I need is a simple concept which I can really experiment with rather than having a really confusing one that prevents me from completing the short film to the best of my ability.